1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer systems and in particular to determining hardware diagnostics during initial program loading (IPL).
2. Description of the Related Art
Current art methods of system initial program loading (IPL) are time consuming when hardware diagnostics is required. There is currently no ability to select a specific hardware within a system to be diagnosed during system IPL. Only a fast speed option or a slow speed option is currently available for system IPL. The fast IPL speed option does not provide any system hardware diagnostics during the system IPL. The slow IPL speed option diagnoses all of the hardware within the system, causing the system IPL process to take a long time to complete. When hardware is replaced in a system, the IPL speed is currently set to the slow IPL speed option so the newly added hardware can be diagnosed. However, setting the IPL speed to the slow IPL speed option causes the IPL diagnostics to diagnose all of the hardware inside the system, including existing hardware known to be good. Also, at system runtime when operating system (OS) applications are running on the system, if a system firmware detects a problem within a hardware subsystem and is not able to isolate the problem to the failing hardware, the system firmware sets the IPL speed to the slow IPL speed option. This causes all of the hardware in the system to be diagnosed at the next system IPL.